Introduction: Transnationalizing Russian Studies

This is the introduction to the volume Transnational Russian Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2019), edited by A. Byford, C. Doak and S. Hutchings. In it, the authors argue for an approach to research and teaching in Russian Studies that is based on a transnational conception of Russia's language, culture, and history. ‘Russia’ and ‘Russianness’ are discussed not as static or unitary entities confined within national borders, but as shifting and dynamic concepts that are perpetually in flux as Russia engages with the wider world. The transnational lens allows us to explore Russia’s distinctive history of nation-making, empire-building and diasporization and at the same time lets us reconsider how that history has shaped the critical paradigms in the field of Russian Studies. Ultimately, the piece suggests not only ways in which the transnational paradigm illuminates Russian Studies, but also how Russian Studies can speak to the paradigm of the transnational.